How Can Our HR Department Elicit Useful Feedback on Its Performance?

How Can Our HR Department Elicit Useful Feedback on Its Performance?

[Workforce Management | November 19, 2009]

Make sure any surveys include a representative sample of your workforce. Give plenty of notice to employees and encourage them to participate.

Q: We want to survey our employees and get their feedback on our human resources services. What are some ideal questions to get them thinking and providing constructive feedback?

- Interested in a Critique, human resources director, finance/insurance/real estate, Durham, North Carolina

A: When preparing to conduct a survey there are several things you should consider even before you formulate questions to ensure a good result.

Plan to:

a) Ensure that the people completing the survey are a representative sample of your employee population as a whole.

b) Select a survey sponsor/champion who can drive respondents to the survey.

c) Determine and communicate what will be done with the results.

d) Provide a feedback loop to the respondents.

e) Choose an effective communication vehicle for the survey. In your messaging, include the objective for the survey, intended use of responses, and a process for ensuring confidentiality.

f) For this type of survey, develop a question list that will take five to 15 minutes to complete.

g) Identify other competing initiatives within the organization that may dilute the response rate and negatively affect "mindshare." Factor in the length of time the survey will remain open.

After preparing to conduct your survey, you can turn your attention to formulating the actual questions by thinking about:

1. Data you really need to know.

Consider what it is you really want to know once the survey has been completed. What is it that you were really looking to find out? Did you ask the right questions in the right way to retrieve that data?

2. Phrasing of questions.

Use a rating scale (usually a three- to five-point satisfaction or importance or frequency scale) or multiple-choice questions to trigger meaningful responses. Keep open-ended questions to a minimum of two or three.

Include identifier questions. These determine how you will be able to "cut" or analyze group and subgroup responses.

Examples:

a) Department

b) Length of employment

c) Title and position

d) Gender

e) Any other type of identifier that you may wish to filter results by

Also include content questions. Keep in mind the desired time frame for the survey.

Examples:

a) How familiar are you with the HR services offered?

b) How many HR services do you use?

c) What role are you expecting HR to fulfill?

d) How often are these services used?

e) Which services are most important to you?

f) Which services are least important to you?

g) How satisfied are you with the services that you use?

h) How would you rate the quality of the interaction between you and your HR representative?

i) How convenient are the online services to use?

j) What would you like to see improved and how might you improve it?

k) How would you like to see the information from this survey used?

l) Do you have other comments?

[Source: Michael Haid and Dr. Deborah Schroeder-Saulnier, Right Management, Philadelphia, June 24, 2009]

The Challenge of Employee Engagement

The Challenge of Employee Engagement

by Enda Larkin

An interesting incident occurred during a workshop which I recently delivered for employees working in a busy hotel. During an ideas session on how to improve business performance, one talented, but extremely de-motivated employee, surprisingly suggested several positive things which would make a difference. When later asked why he had not previously told his manager about these ideas, his response was fairly blunt, but very revealing: "I don't get paid from the neck up."

Here was a guy who was so disengaged that he saw his role as being to do, but not to think. You might wonder why he stayed, or even why he was allowed to stay, but the fact was, he was there and was not contributing as much as he could to the hotel. Although an extreme case, he is far from alone; respected national and international research commonly shows that as few as 30% of employees are actively engaged in the companies they work for. It is a disturbing thought and not something to be ignored; lack of employee engagement is a hidden cost and it is simply not possible to achieve business goals or deliver excellence unless employees roll in behind that ambition.

Employee engagement has emerged as an important issue in recent years and whilst it might be a current 'in' term, it's not necessarily a totally original concept. Issues like teambuilding, motivation, and empowerment have always been important and engagement is essentially an umbrella concept which pulls all these strands together. An engaged employee is not only happy in their job though, but translates that satisfaction into higher productivity. They believe in what the business is trying to achieve, are eager to help realise those goals and play an active role in making the company a success. Their job has meaning for them and they see a real purpose in what they do. As such, employee engagement involves addressing any issue which impacts on an individual's ability or willingness to give their all and concerns a range of factors such as individual motivation and commitment, team effectiveness, overall employee satisfaction and productivity. But what can be practically done to more fully engage employees?

This is perhaps one of the most common questions that I get asked; in fact, it has arisen in one shape or form on every leadership course that I have ever delivered. So much so that it has become something of a personal quest to try and define what the key drivers of engagement are. There is no magic pill of course, but from comparing best practices seen in companies where engagement is high, I have come up with a list of twelve factors which all leaders need to be concerned with:

It should be obvious that no one thing will, on its own, fully address the engagement issue, but I have noticed that when leadership is strong, engagement levels tend to be higher, so effective leadership is certainly the most critical first step. As well as their own capabilities, to really engage their people, leaders also need to consider the remaining drivers:

1. Culture

Culture is intangible for sure but it has a major impact on the feel or climate in any organization. Whilst there is no 'right' culture, there are certain environments which build engagement, whereas others do the opposite and leaders can play an important role in building a culture which draws employees in rather than pushes them away.

2. Composition

Relates to the make-up of teams and all leaders need to pay close attention to how they recruit people into existing teams. Employees do not necessarily all have to like each other, nor will they, but there must be a general 'fit' between all members; otherwise it is hard to engage them because who wants to work alongside a bunch of people with whom you have little or nothing in common.

3. Clarity

In this context means ensuring that employees understand both aspirations and expectations. Aspirations relate to the big picture and, as a basic building block of engagement, leaders need to help employees to fully understand where the organization is going and how they can contribute to that. Clarity is also required as to what is expected of employees, as nothing will destroy engagement faster than conflicting directions or shifting roles and responsibilities.

4. Competence

Contributes to engagement in a number of ways. First, most employees want to build their skills and talents at work, so to increase engagement, leaders need to ensure that there are relevant and regular opportunities for personal development. Equally, all employees should be similarly competent at what they are expected to do. If not, others in the team have to take up the slack and this creates resentment, or worse still conflict, which can chip away at engagement.

5. Cooperation

Levels of cooperation in teams are both a driver of engagement and a reflection of it. When people work well together they build bonds and trust increases and this in turn improves general engagement levels because most people prefer to work in collaborative environments.

6. Control

Controlling how individuals behave within teams is critical to engagement because when certain team members are allowed to step out of line without consequence, this serves as a de-motivating factor for engaged employees as they question why they should bother. Equally, too controlling an environment stifles engagement because people sense a lack of freedom and autonomy.

7. Communication

Is always key to the levels of engagement seen and where communication is regular, open, two-way and more importantly effective, employees tend to be more engaged.

8. Challenge

For most employees having a sense of challenge in their work is vital to how engaged they feel with the hotel. When work feels repetitive or mundane, employees naturally feel less engaged so leaders need to find ways to introduce a sense of challenge for employees.

9. Conflict

The manner in which conflict is managed can have a major impact on how engaged employees are likely to be. Constructive conflict, which leads to new ideas and better solutions, should be encouraged, but well managed, so that employees feel that they can speak their minds or contribute in an appropriate manner. Destructive conflict, on the other hand, which adds no value should be dealt with promptly by the leader; a failure to do so will impact engagement levels as most people hate to work in a poisoned atmosphere.

10. Compensation

In the broadest sense is about people feeling rewarded for the contribution they make. Pay and conditions of course an important element in this, but things like constructive feedback and positive recognition when deserved are just as powerful in terms of building engagement.

11. Change

How change is managed can also impact on the levels of engagement seen. Too little change can result in stagnation which destroys engagement, yet too much of it, or too much meaningless change can simply frustrate employees and causes them to disengage.

Apart from raising their own game, the best leaders also pay close attention to these factors because they know that in doing so they will not only build engagement levels but more importantly that this will in turn lead to greater productivity and ultimately better results. They understand that nothing can ever truly be achieved if employees do not buy into the hotel's aims and that lifting each individual's level of engagement, even by a small amount, can make a big difference; they really believe in the value of individual contributions or as Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, once said, 'If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.'

[About the Author: Enda Larkin has over 25 years experience in the hotel industry having held a number of senior management positions in Ireland, UK and the US. In 1994 he founded HTC Consulting, a Geneva based firm, which specializes in working with enterprises in hospitality and tourism. Since that time, he has led numerous consulting projects for public and private sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East. He is author of Ready to Lead? and How to Run a Great Hotel which expands on the themes highlighted in this article.]

Five Tips for Effective Hiring and Recruiting

Five Tips for Effective Hiring and Recruiting

by Steve Bonadio

Hiring and recruiting systems broaden the scope of legacy applicant tracking systems (ATS) by streamlining the entire hiring life cycle, from talent needs assessment and requisition creation to candidate selection and on-boarding.

Here are five tips talent managers can implement to get the most out of their hiring and recruiting investments.

Tip No. 1: Eliminate talent assessment and sourcing bottlenecks.

Many organizations are inundated with record numbers of applicants and resumes as job seekers significantly outnumber open positions. Compounding this challenge, HR and recruiting organizations are seriously resource-constrained.

For many organizations, talent assessment and sourcing processes are neither automated nor optimized, thus creating serious bottlenecks. The negative consequences of these bottlenecks include slow time to hire, low quality of hire, reduced hiring productivity and inconsistent collaboration and feedback.

A key solution to this problem is candidate filter management, which improves candidate flow and reduces bottlenecks by enabling users to more efficiently search, filter, pre-screen, assess, and rank and score applicants. By implementing a systematic candidate filtering process, organizations are better able to quickly find the right candidate for the job as well as ensure the long-term success of new hires.

Tip No. 2: Improve end-to-end process consistency and transparency.

A typical hiring and recruiting process is complex, time consuming and involves numerous constituents, including recruiters, hiring managers, approvers, interviewers and candidates. Because of the complexity, many users find that there is little consistency and transparency in the overall process, which negatively impacts hiring quality, timeliness and effective decision making.

There are four essential steps involved in the hiring and recruiting process, with each step flowing from the previous one:

a) Talent needs assessment:

Assessing the talent requirements and managing job requisitions.

b) Sourcing management:

Recruiting for an open position both internally and externally.

c) Candidate evaluation:

Evaluating candidates' skills and competencies and managing the interview process.

d) Offer and on-boarding management:

Managing job offers and transitioning candidates to employment.

To ensure consistency across the entire hiring and recruiting process, each step must flow seamlessly into the next step via automated workflows, and alerts and triggers must be established to notify users of pending action items. Each step by itself must also be optimized. Across the entire hiring and recruiting process, reporting and analytics must be enabled to support effective decision making.

Tip No. 3: Promote talent mobility.

In many organizations, talent mobility is impeded because there is no consistent or systematic process for aligning current and future talent needs to the existing talent inventory. Without a cohesive talent mobility strategy, organizations face several risks, including a focus on costly external recruiting versus internal sourcing as well as lower high performer engagement and higher churn.

Organizations should consider the following integrated processes to promote and enable talent mobility:

a) Current workforce analysis:

Includes detailed talent profiles, employee summaries, organization charts, competencies and job templates.

b) Talent needs assessment:

A key process within the overall hiring and recruiting process responsible for defining talent requirements.

c) Future needs analysis:

Development-centric succession planning to create and manage dynamic, fully populated talent pools.

Tip No. 4: Link hiring and recruiting to broader talent processes.

Many organizations tend to focus myopically on the hiring and recruiting process itself and do not consider how the process links to broader talent processes.

Organizations can drive greater efficiencies by taking a more holistic view of hiring and recruiting. Several broader talent processes present themselves for integration, including performance management (create and align new hire goals to divisional and company goals), career development (create competency-based career plans for new hires), and learning management (automatically schedule courses for new hires, especially important for compliance).

Tip No. 5: Improve reporting, measurement and decision making.

Tactical hiring and recruiting metrics, such as time to hire and source yields, used by many organizations today are inadequate and do not enable continuous improvement or facilitate better decision making. The majority of organizations continue to measure their hiring and recruiting effectiveness based on how long it takes to fill a position, how much it costs and where candidates are sourced.

Part of the challenge lies in the fact that data is spread out in various silos across the organization and there's no common employee system of record. A single, fully connected talent platform that covers the gamut of HR functions and processes - including hiring and recruiting - can alleviate some problems since the data is all in one place. With this infrastructure in place, organizations can more readily leverage strategic workforce analytics that provide meaningful cross-functional metrics, such as on-boarding effectiveness and the impact of learning programs on employee performance.

[About the Author: Steve Bonadio is a 15-year veteran of the enterprise software industry and currently serves as the vice president of product marketing for Softscape.]

Find Creative Ways to Motivate Employees

Find Creative Ways to Motivate Employees

by Andris Strazds

Talent managers must continuously motivate and inspire employees in order to get them to realize their full potential. There are a number of creative approaches to do so that can yield positive business results.

1. Ask newcomers to observe the organization and learn about its values by finding examples of behavior representing them.

The traditional approach to welcoming newcomers has been to organize an induction course during which new employees can learn about the mission, vision, goals and values of the organization; they will also likely be told a few stories exemplifying desired workplace behavior. While that is certainly an option, better motivational impact can be achieved by involving new joiners in participant observation and asking them to come up with their own examples of behavior exemplifying the values of the organization. It goes without saying that the organization should live out its values for this approach to work, as any inconsistencies between the declared and the actual will quickly become apparent.

2. Provide positive and negative feedback instantly; use performance reviews to emphasize only the positive feedback.

Traditionally, performance reviews have been designed so as to provide balanced feedback. However, experience shows that this often leads to employees spending more time on the negative feedback they receive, as it is typically more detailed. Thus, a reviewee often leaves such a meeting thinking about his or her past failures rather than being inspired. To avoid this, focus only on the positive feedback during performance reviews. One way to do this is by bringing up a few examples of recent situations in which the performance of the reviewee has been truly outstanding and encouraging him or her to replicate them in the future. Critical feedback - as well as praise, of course - can be delivered instantly throughout the year. This approach will not yield results when managers are dealing with below-average performers, though.

3. Encourage people to improve further on their strengths; focus less attention on their relative weaknesses as long as they don't jeopardize minimum performance standards.

A common approach has been to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each person and then encourage them to maintain their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. While there is certain logic behind this approach, it has a negative impact on motivation, as people start spending more time improving on their weaknesses than on continuing to develop their strengths. In the long run, it might even breed mediocrities - people who are relatively good at many things, but not really excellent at anything. A more motivating approach is to require people to improve further on their strengths, to become outstanding with respect to some competencies and just establish a minimum performance threshold with regard to the others. Another tactic is to team up people so that their competency profiles complement each other. For example, a great salesperson who isn't proficient at doing administrative work could be paired with an administrative assistant.

4. Actively nurture relationships with former colleagues who have left the organization by establishing an "alumni association."

Usually managers at best quickly forget about former colleagues who have chosen to continue their careers outside the organization and at worst try to downplay their past contribution or point out their weaknesses behind their backs. This has a negative impact on the motivation of the remaining people, who often have developed good relationships with their former colleagues. It might also indicate that team-building efforts actually lack sincerity. Besides avoiding these types of negative effects, actively nurturing relationships with former colleagues might also be beneficial for the organization in the future.

[About the Author: Andris Strazds is a lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a senior economist with Nordea Bank Finland. He has been teaching business strategy and managerial economics for more than a decade. In the past, Strazds has served as strategy development manager at Lattlecom, a company partly owned by Telia Sonera, and worked as valuation and strategy manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.]

ROI Approach To Retention

Taking an ROI Approach to Retention

by Jack and Patti Phillips

In the middle of a win-or-lose situation, no one wants to hear a team member exclaim, "I'm taking my ball and going home!" - especially if that "ball" is talent. Still, senior executives often hear some variation of this statement in their organizations, despite efforts to prevent it. Finding a successful talent retention approach requires shifting paradigms, changing perceptions and throwing out old habits. Outdated talent retention approaches have created six distinct problems.

1. Proactive versus reactive approach

Many organizations react to the retention issue by addressing it only when a problem arises. When they do react, they often develop enormous incentive packages to entice key employees to remain onboard. This creates a financial burden, as it costs the organization more to retain these employees than to benefit from them. A continuous improvement process cycle can help focus on consistently bettering the current talent retention situation.

2. Too many preventive programs

The philosophy is often this: If enough programs are implemented, eventually one will maintain staffing at the appropriate level and eliminate unnecessary turnover. Without program accountability, implementation results may never be known.

3. Keeping up with the Joneses

Many talent managers continually search for solutions. They try to find programs that have worked for other organizations through workshops and conferences. This approach often results in failure without proper problem analysis. An upfront evaluation can identify specific turnover causes.

4. Too many solutions

When employee retention is identified as a problem, too many organizations, even successful ones, base their solutions on an excessive number of strategies. Turnover is a complex issue with many influences. Too many solutions can burden the organization with new, costly programs with minimal, if any, results to show for them. The objective should be to allocate resources only to those that are most effective.

5. Mismatches

Too often, a solution does not address the retention problem. Perhaps there is insufficient information to provide a clear understanding of the solution required. Perhaps the wrong solution is selected or it is improperly implemented, resulting in a lack of added value. To avoid mistakes, clearly match solutions to needs.

6. Lack of payoff

When an expensive solution is implemented, management should know whether or not it made a difference. A process is needed to measure solution results from a balanced perspective. Collect different types of tangible and intangible data so management can clearly see the impact of major retention strategies.

An ROI Approach

An eight-step approach talent leaders can use to strategically promote accountability when managing talent retention.

1. Measure and monitor turnover and retention data.

Six issues need to be addressed to properly monitor and measure turnover.

a) Appropriately define turnover.

For many organizations, turnover is voluntary. For others, it stems from resignations and terminations based on unsatisfactory performance. Perhaps the cleanest definition is "avoidable turnover." It is important to define turnover and match its definition in benchmarking studies, industry reports or trade publications.

b) Report turnover rates by various demographics.

It is important to report demographics that account for differences, enabling patterns to develop and be analyzed.

c) Report turnover by critical job groups.

Employee groups that design, develop or deliver essential products and services or require special skills often in short supply should be monitored and tracked separately.

d) Report turnover with costs.

While actual turnover rates and percentages are reported monthly or yearly, additional reporting of actual costs can be more effective. Because various components of turnover cost appear in different cost statements, it is important to bring the total cost of turnover to the senior management team's attention.

e) Compare data with benchmarking targets.

It's important to compare turnover data in multiple ways:

1. Within the industry to show how the organization stacks up with others in similar situations.

2. A custom-designed benchmark project to best-practice firms.

3. A historical comparison is critical.

4. A comparison of expectations from the division manager, senior team or plant manager, to understand when a measure is not working.

f) Develop trigger points for action.

When should an alarm sound? Is turnover a rising trend or a sudden spurt? Is the measure going up when it should go down? Each of these could signal action necessary to begin exploring clauses and creating solutions.

2. Develop fully loaded turnover costs.

Turnover is often misunderstood because it does not reflect the actual costs of a turnover statistic, nor is it regularly reported to the management team. Further, it can be alarming to management when fully loaded costs are calculated for the organization for an entire year. In one technology-based organization, turnover costs were estimated at almost $2 billion with revenues of $20 billion, a frightening amount when considering the total impact on the organization.

In some turnover studies, only costs for recruiting, selection and training are considered. These are easily calculated and consequently result in underreporting.

3. Diagnose causes and needs for retention improvement.

Some causes may be obvious, while others remain elusive. Collecting appropriate data is often a challenge because of the potential for bias and inaccuracies that surfaces during the data collection process. Several diagnostic processes are available, such as exit interviews, exit surveys, force field analysis and affinity diagrams. Nominal group technique is an effective tool to understand the causes of turnover.

4. Explore a range of solutions.

Organizations are often creative in their approaches to turnover problems, but too many potential solutions can cause confusion. Ensure a solution is feasible for the organization.

5. Match solutions to needs.

This step goes hand in hand with forecasting the value of solutions, because the solutions selected for implementation are assumed to meet specific needs, making the forecast of the anticipated value imperative. When attempting to match solutions to need, consider four key issues:

a) Avoid mismatches.

b) Discourage multiple solutions.

c) Verify the match early.

d) Check the progress of each solution.

6. Forecast ROI of retention solutions.

Developing a forecast for a solution's value allows the team to establish priorities and focus on solutions with the greatest return on investment. When forecasting, accumulate as much data as possible to establish credibility for the process. Ideally, the forecast will offer a range of possible ROI values, given certain assumptions, which removes some of the risk of making a precise estimation.

7. Calculate ROI for retention solutions.

From a senior executive's point of view, accountability is not complete until impact and ROI data have been collected. Develop different data types to illustrate turnover reduction strategy. This ensures the value of the strategy is clear and enough data are developed to identify improvements. These data include:

a) Reaction to the solution and satisfaction with it.

b) Skill and knowledge acquisition.

c) Application and implementation progress.

d) Business impact improvement.

e) Return on investment, expressed as a financial ROI formula.

f) Intangible measures, not converted to monetary values.

This strategy also includes a technique to isolate the effects of the retention solution.

8. Make adjustments and continue.

The extensive set of data collected from the ROI process will provide information to make adjustments and changes in turnover reduction strategies. The information reveals the success of the solution at all levels and examines the barriers to success, identifying specifically what kept the solution from being effective or prevented it from becoming more effective. Further, it identifies processes that enable or support a turnover reduction solution.

Managing talent is an important and expensive exercise for an organization. Ensuring the right talent is retained is part of that process. Too often resources are allocated to talent retention with minimum concern for the impact the investments have on retention itself. An ROI approach has many advantages and is recommended when there is concern with preventing or reducing turnover from its current level.

[About the Authors: Jack Phillips, Ph.D., is chair of the ROI Institute Inc. and developer of the ROI Methodology. Patti Phillips, Ph.D., is president and CEO of the ROI Institute Inc.]

The Move to Mentoring

People Developing People: The Move to Mentoring

by Agatha Gilmore

When times are tough, we often look to our friends and colleagues for support. That human connection and sharing of knowledge is an invaluable tool for navigating a crisis - and now, it's an economical one, too.

According to Bersin & Associates' Corporate Learning Factbook 2009, the U.S. corporate training industry shrank roughly 4 percent between 2007 and 2008 - "the greatest decline in more than 10 years," the report stated. Yet perhaps more interesting, this decline was accompanied by a corresponding uptick in the interest in and use of mentoring solutions.

According to the Factbook report, "[some] online training hours were replaced by coaching, collaborative programs and other less-costly methods." In fact, coaching is now incorporated into 30 percent of all training programs.

"When you're talking about a decrease in training budgets, it's not just the workshops themselves, but it's the actual [number of] people that are responsible for it and able to implement it [that is decreasing]," explained Judy Corner, a subject-matter expert in mentoring at Insala, a provider of talent management software and solutions. "Even with an economic upturn, that's probably one department where it's not going to go back up. Your IT will go back up, so will other areas of the organization - product development or manufacturing. But chances are the training function will not go back up. How do you get that type of development out to people without increasing that head count? Mentoring is that. It's a way for people to get development without having to go to a training class."

While mentoring can't fully replace traditional classroom-based training and e-learning programs, it can help reinforce them and provide much-needed one-on-one support.

"Like it or not, people still need people," Corner said. "Employees are saying, 'As soon as this economic upturn begins and I'm feeling comfortable, I'm out of here.' What organizations are suddenly realizing is, 'Uh oh, we'd better be careful, and we'd better let our employees know that we really do care about them and we really want our good people to stay.' Mentoring's a great way to do that."

Another advantage of mentoring is the potential for highly customized, just-in-time learning.

"Oftentimes there isn't a specific training class to be able to address whatever that person's immediate need might be," said Morgan O'Brien, Insala's vice president of business development for North America. "For example, if I'm working for an organization that's just expanding to creating and entering global markets, there may be someone I can tap into in my organization with a question or to help reflect on a specific issue, but the training department might not have any kind of formalized structured curriculum to assist with those kinds of situations."

Although measuring the cost savings from using mentoring versus traditional training methods might be difficult, Corner said learning executives can point to the end result as proof.

"[It's] the fact that people have gotten the development they needed without the expense of going through a training function - whether it's a workshop or a course or whatever it might be," she said.

That said, organizations must be very careful and deliberate when turning to mentoring to supplement training.

"The biggest pitfall is the fact that if you don't make sure that you've got good mentors, bad habits can get passed on," said Corner, who added that learning leaders should consider offering mentoring training for business managers and other would-be mentors. "The quality of your mentoring initiatives is highly dependent on the quality of your mentors."

O'Brien added that another crucial factor to consider when implementing a mentoring program is setting the right expectations, both for mentors and mentees.

"Oftentimes mentees have a perception that their career is going to be skyrocketed by participating in this program. It needs to be clearly stated what the expected outcomes and results are going to be," he said.

[About the Author: Agatha Gilmore is a senior editor for Chief Learning Officer magazine.]

The Gentle Leader - An Article On Leadership

The Gentle Leader


By Gregg Thompson

James Kavanaugh once suggested that there are “those too gentle to live
among the wolves”. I hope this is no longer true in today’s organizations.
I believe that the “wolves” have had their day and need to make way for a
new breed of manager: The Gentle Leader. Today we need those special
leaders who can create a real sense of community and commitment in our
organizations. Leaders who see their role as one that serves the greater
good, as one that puts the interests of others first, as one that creates
places where the lowest of the low are treated with dignity and respect.
Leaders who can galvanize people around an idea that stirs their deepest
passions. Leaders who believe that position, privilege and wealth is earned
only in service of others. Men and women who use words like compassion,
sacrifice and forgiveness…and mean them. Leaders who understand kindness
and tolerance because these elements are evident in all of their decisions
and actions. Leaders who have remarkable faith in others and draw their
strength from this faith.


If you are one of these Gentle Leaders, I will admit that you have likely
faced formidable opposition throughout your career. Your stellar people
skills have been patronized and your collegial nature has been seen as
weakness. Your superiors have encouraged you to sharpen your strategic
leadership skills (usually code for “please do my job because I can’t do
it”) and become more forceful in driving high performance (even though they
would never admit to having their performance driven by others). Your teams
have always quietly achieved extraordinary results but you have been unable
to build any career momentum because you just don’t fit the mold of the
upwardly-mobile executive. You have been kept around because you are great
at getting important stuff done but are not seen as tough enough to take on
a real organization leadership role. I have good news for you….your time
has come!


Why now? Simply because many of our organizations have been beaten up to
the point of collapse and need the revitalization that can only come from a
new kind of leadership. Your kind of leadership. A leadership that
graciously sees the best in others, heals festering wounds and crafts a
new, exciting story for the organization. And this is not just about being
nice to people. This is a business imperative. The bonds of loyalty and
commitment have been so weakened that many of our organizations are unable
to take advantage of any economic upswing and will be left behind,
irrelevant in the next economic chapter. A look inside these organizations
reveals talented people who are now living out their careers in quiet
desperation. These people are merely going through the motions each day and
putting in their time. There is no shortage of advice for today’s leaders.
As engagement scores tumble, consultants and writers from previous eras are
still imploring our leaders to “drive new behaviors”, ” hold people more
accountable”, and “get the wrong people off the bus”. It’s not working, and
it’s time for leadership that can inject fresh energy and enthusiasm into
our organizations. It’s time for The Gentle Leader.


Other leaders have had their time. During the past century we have been on
a relentless journey to create commercial organizations that can survive
and thrive in demanding and ever-changing marketplaces. Uniquely-gifted men
and women have emerged to lead these organizations. From the early 1900’s
until the 80’s our companies were dominated by The Production Systems
Leader who organized us around machines and repetitive processes. This
leader was needed to bring order and predictability to the horde of
individual craftsmen who were trying to serve the emerging markets created
by industrialization. This leader was followed by The Quality Performance
Leader whose obsession with improvement in work systems and processes
resulted in previously unimaginable levels of productivity. The year 2000
birthed today’s Opportunistic Enterprisers, the “wolves” whose mission was
to extract maximum value from the convergence of technology, globalization
and fast-changing markets. They were asked to build lean, mean
organizations, set big, audacious goals, exploit every market opportunity
and be satisfied with nothing less than exceptional performance. And they
have done this remarkably well. Maybe too well. We seem to have lost
something important along the way. We have lost our organizational soul!


Many organizations have become cold and heartless entities that no longer
nourish the human spirit and are now incapable of moving forward. In our
pursuit of excellence and opportunity, we have somehow lost touch with the
very purpose of organizations and have created entities that no longer
satisfy our most basic human needs to be appreciated, to learn and to do
work that really matters. When is the last time you saw a leader put
community-building at the top of their priority list? When is the last time
you have heard a leader speak about compassion and caring as if they really
meant it? When have you seen an executive truly make a large personal
sacrifice for the good of the lowest paid member of the company?


Can one become a Gentle Leader you ask? Yes, but it is not easy and
certainly not for the faint of heart. It may very well be the most
challenging transition of your leadership career. It requires exceptional
courage, boldness and daring: the courage to confront your needs for
accolades and recognition, the boldness to invite each and every member of
the organization to put a hand on the organization’s steering wheel, and
the daring necessary to commit to a leadership agenda based only on duty
and service to others. But the rewards are worth the effort. As a new
decade dawns, you will be the leader who forges new pathways into the
future. Now is your time to step up to real organization leadership. But
watch out for the wolves. They will not go quietly into the night.


About the Author: Gregg Thompson is the President of Bluepoint Leadership
Development. He is a facilitator, coach, author and speaker.

Consider The Consequences

Consider The Consequences

Become very, very sweet. Remove even the slightest trace of anger. Whatever you think, whatever you say, consider carefully all the consequences beforehand. By performing actions knowing their consequences, success is definitely experienced.

I also have 6 practical tips for managing information overload.

For now, let's define information overload as "the inability to
obtain the knowledge you need or want from the large amount of
information available to you."

The problem is that there is far too much information flowing our
way, leading us to become overloaded, confused, and sometimes
even a bit paralyzed as we try to sort through and make sense of
it all. This kind of information overload gets in the way of our
productivity in a variety of ways, so if you want to simplify
your life and increase your effectiveness it make sense to look
at the problem and find ways to minimize it.


Tip # 1 - Don't try to know everything


Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have to know
"everything" that's out there and flowing your way. It's
impossible to truly know everything about any subject, so don't
waste your time and energy even trying.

Instead, figure out what you really need to know right now and
focus on that. Given your current priorities and goals, what
information do you really need to have to accomplish those
things?


Tip # 2 - Know what you need when you start


Before you start to sort through information and read materials,
take a few moments to identify what it is you really need to gain
from the process. In other words, how much detail do you really
need to take in? If all you need is a general idea or overview of
a subject or topic there's no need to waste time wading through
large amount of detail.


Tip # 3 - Focus on relevance, importance and value


Some people feel guilty when they don't read everything that
comes their way; in fact, this is a major contributing factor to
getting caught up in information overload.

You feel guilty about passing up information so you try harder to
absorb even more, creating a vicious cycle of scooping up vast
amounts of information based on the fear of missing something
important.

The key to getting out of this cycle is to focus on the
relevance, importance, and value of information.


Tip # 4 - Centralize your communication and information sources


The fewer places you need to look to get your information the
better. Try consolidating different sources into a single tool
(for instance, route RSS feeds into your email client so you
don't have to look in both places).


Tip # 5 - Establish check times and routines


Don't check for information repeatedly throughout the day because
this is a huge time waster and sets you up to get bogged down in
information overload. Instead, set aside specific times during
the day for checking information (check email, read RSS feeds,
pick up voice mail, etc.)


Tip # 6 - Balance narrow vs. broad


This is one of the challenging parts of establishing an
information management system because you need to take in both
kinds of information; that is, information that's narrow and
specific to your field or discipline, as well as information that
is broad and exposes you to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Spend too much time on narrow information and your thought
processes can become myopic and stagnant. However, if you spend
too much time on broad information you can quickly fall out of
touch with current thinking in your field and get distracted with
irrelevant details.


These tips come directly from a *new* 23-page bonus report that I
just added to the Get Focused course... you can get it along with
the course here:

--> http://www.GoalsToAction.com/GetFocused/

Rodger

Attract and Retain Talent With Concierge Services

Attract and Retain Talent With Concierge Services

by Tillie Hidalgo Lima

An employee leaves for lunch only to find his car in the parking lot with a flat tire. Instead of wasting company time dealing with the tire store or perhaps roadside assistance, what employee wouldn't love to be able to hand off this problem to someone else? If the company offered concierge services, that's exactly what could happen.

Workforce Priorities

Everyone in the workforce today is time-starved, but younger generations in particular have a strong desire for work-life balance. In 2006, The Herman Group reported that members of Generation Y often demand to know how their work will help them live the lives they want to lead. Work is an enabler of life for them, not the reason for it.

One practical way to support a healthy work-life balance is to employ concierges to offload simple but time-consuming chores from employees. Some of the most popular services are:

a) Personal shopping: picking up gifts or supplies.

b) Automobile: car repair or fill-up.

c) Mailing, shipping and postage: going to the post office.

d) Information research: from child and elder care to product comparison.

e) Dry cleaning and laundry: dropping off and picking up.

These services allow employees to stay focused on their jobs, be more productive while at work and make their free time more enjoyable when off work. This gift of time is useful for all employees, unlike some benefits, such as tuition assistance, which only apply to a subset of workers.

Results Prove the Value

Companies that use concierge services often see increased employee retention, sometimes cutting turnover in half. The associated cost reduction in recruiting expenses drops directly to the bottom line. In 2005, Bronson Healthcare Group, a network of hospitals, clinics and health care providers in Michigan, reported $250,000 in annual savings as a result of offering concierge services.

Productivity also increases, giving employees approximately two hours back for each fulfilled concierge request. Many employees will pour this time back into their work. Further, based on 2008 client surveys, Best Upon Request Corporate Inc. reported that more than 90 percent of respondents said concierge service reduced their stress and helped them achieve a better balance between work and their personal lives.

A Good Investment

It is important to take care when establishing a concierge service program so that it is robust enough to provide real support for employees. Proper setup likely will include:

a) Staffing the concierge position with the right person.

b) Establishing a tracking mechanism for requests.

c) Insuring and bonding concierges so they can enter employees' homes and drive employees' cars.

d) Providing an easy-to-use payment system for employees.

Most businesses will pay for concierge services, while employees pay for directly incurred costs, such as car repair or dry cleaning bills. The benefits companies derive from offering the service - improved retention and increased productivity among them - make it relatively easy to justify the investment. As illustrated by Bronson Healthcare, the return to the business far outweighs the cost.

[About the Author: Tillie Hidalgo Lima is president and CEO of Best Upon Request Corporate Inc.]

Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

by Deanna Hartley

Job frustration and conflicts often arise due to ineffective communication or poor relationships in the workplace. But the advent of a new decade offers talent managers the opportunity to make a New Year's resolution to communicate more effectively with employees and improve workplace relationships - thereby creating a high-performing work environment.

"Poor workplace communication usually involves politics and backbiting and is built on the fundamental error that by making someone else look bad, you can make yourself look good," said Samuel Chapman, CEO of Empower Public Relations and author of The No-Gossip Zone: A No-Nonsense Guide to a Healthy, High-Performing Work Environment.

Many individuals who indulge in office gossip say it's a social lubricant and the fabric of some of their relationships with colleagues, Chapman explained. "Even though [gossipers] think they're being clever, it usually backfires [because] positioning someone negatively [makes them] look really bad," he said.

Ineffective communication and meaningless chatter may appear to be rather harmless on the surface, but they can have a tangible impact on a company's bottom line.

For instance, Equisys, a business communications company, conducted a study in 2002 that found that about 65 hours a year are wasted on gossip per employee. And that was long before IM chat made its way into regular office communications and text messaging usage took off.

Chapman said gossip is unprofitable behavior where everybody loses, and since some 60 percent of workers have cited gossip as their No. 1 pet peeve in the workplace, according to a 2007 Randstad USA study, it would be in a manager's best interest to take the necessary steps to eradicate it.

"If they can eliminate at no cost workers' largest complaint, the pathway to productivity seems clear," he said.

It's imperative for managers to take a proactive role to make their workplace a gossip-free zone and instead promote authentic communication in the workplace. A manager can start by tactfully stating what's on his or her mind to an employee's face instead of making negative comments behind the employee's back.

"Don't walk around with a bunch of things you're feeling about employees but not telling them," Chapman said. "The role of management is to be a model of good behavior, because managing people is like raising children - they do what you do; they don't do what you say, so managers have to be an example to all."

Another tool Chapman recommends for managers to improve workplace communication is to convert complaints into requests.

"Negative feedback is a gift, but [managers should] shun criticism," he said. "Criticism is: 'That work stinks,' [whereas] negative feedback is: 'That work has spelling errors,' or even better: 'Would you be sure to spell check your work before you give it to me?' [That way,] instead of just hearing an angry person, employees know what steps to take."

[About the Author: Deanna Hartley is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]

Human Performance 2000-2010

Human Performance 2000-2010

by Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D.

In 1999, I completed two best practices studies on learning and performance: one on technology-based interventions, and the other examining the training investments, strategies and performance support. A simple conclusion emerged: Fundamentals, not fads, were the keys to success.

My 2000 article opened as follows: "Don't expect amazing miracles to dramatically transform human learning and performance just because we are on the threshold of Y2K. Rather, look for what we have already learned about performance improvement to become increasingly refined and applied in the workplace."

1999 was a heady year. The dot-com bubble had not yet burst. The devastation following the dot-com implosion - and certainly the current depressed economy - was nowhere on the horizon. People believed technology was the key to progress. My opening general prediction still holds. Performance improvement practices have advanced by degrees far more than by revolutionary innovation. Compare my 1999 predictions to today's reality for yourself.

1. Clear understanding of uses and limitations of technology-based learning (TBL):

Substitute "better" for "clear." TBL is integrated into mainstream workplace learning strategies. E-learning is approximately 30 percent of training delivery. After dramatic entrances, electronic performance support systems and knowledge management (KM) were quietly assimilated. The Web has increased its presence, but has not wildly altered things beyond naturalness of use. Twitter, blogs, RSS and social networking are only marginally impactful on performance.

2. General commitment to front-end analysis before launching into training ventures:

Sadly not so. There is more awareness of the need to conduct performance gap analyses, but not much evidence of increased activity.

3. High demand for soundly engineered learning systems, courses and materials rather than cobbled-together info dumps:

Recent cost cutting has dampened progress. Speed to delivery rules. Not much advancement since 2000.

4. High demand for evidence that training and other performance interventions work and an emphasis on demonstrated ROI:

Rhetoric has increased. Human capital management (HCM) and human capital analytics (HCA) have appeared. Interest in ROI runs high, but there is little evidence of ROI being done. I anticipate, however, that pressure to demonstrate workplace learning and performance payoff will stimulate more front-end analyses and impact ROI measurement activities within the next few years.

5. Rediscovery of the value of live, interactive learning events:

Live events - face to face or Web based - have experienced a resurgence of interest. About 70 percent of all learning events to improve performance are live and synchronous.

6. Deeper understanding of learning organization, corporate university, knowledge management and reusable learning objects (RLO):

All of these have evolved over the past 10 years. Most modern organizations possess multifaceted learning and performance support networks. Corporate universities have progressed beyond courses and curricula. KM no longer means costly IT systems; it is conducted through myriad channels. RLOs are far more nuanced than the initial courses-by-numbers naivete.

7. Larger numbers of partnerships between internal and external groups for improving human performance:

Despite service outsourcing cutbacks, the trend is moving upward. External learning and performance experts team with internal specialists to produce high-quality, rapid interventions.

8. Transformation of training to human performance support services:

Performance consulting is much more present today than in 2000. Training groups have generally morphed into learning and development, learning and performance, or performance enhancement entities.

9. Emergence of human performance technology as a major influence for achieving workplace and societal goals:

Emergence, yes. Major influence, still a distant dream. Nevertheless, there is progress, as witnessed by the growth of university programs, publications and numbers of performance professionals.

Despite service outsourcing cutbacks, the trend is moving upward. External learning and performance experts team with internal specialists to produce high-quality, rapid interventions.

Human performance 2010, as predicted, has become increasingly refined and applied in the workplace. Wither 2020?

[About the Author: Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., CPT is a principal of HSA Learning & Performance Solutions LLC and is emeritus professor of instructional and performance technology at the Universite de Montreal.]